Assistant Director, Early Childhood Site - JCCs of North America

Assistant Director, Early Childhood Site
JCC Chicago
300 Revere Drive
Northbrook, IL 60062

At JCC Chicago, we are focused on growing good kids, building communities, and educating ourselves on the past to make a difference for the future. The largest JCC in North America, JCC Chicago offers a life-affirming journey that builds on the richness and power of Jewish values and continues to reimagine them for a more connected, inspired community.

The Early Childhood Assistant Site Director is responsible for working with the Early Childhood Site Director on the management, supervision, planning, development, and growth strategies for the Early Childhood program at the Florence Heller JCC (Lakeview - Chicago). The Assistant Site Director plays a key role in helping to support the vision, goals and strategy of the EC department and ensures the highest quality program is offered to the community we serve. The Assistant Site Director will develop strong, positive relationships with existing families and steward prospective families through enrollment and engagement.

JCC Chicago is an equal opportunity agency that offers programs for all ages and abilities. Our goal is to foster relationships, build our community, and create connections that will enable our mission to reach a larger impact. We welcome you to join us in building your career, as we build a stronger community.

Leadership

• Work with Site Director and the ECS Management Team to review and create strategic plans that allow EC to meet agency goals. Meet regularly with supervisor to review and continually reassess strategic and tactical goals.

Curriculum & Program Excellence

• With Site Director, ensure curriculum meets the highest standards of excellence in both general and Jewish early childhood education, ensuring compliance with DCFS and JCC
• Spend time weekly in specified classrooms; provide support, guidance and feedback to staff and ensure program environments are safe, secure, and clean.
• Annually support EC Site Director in evaluating site performance, growth strategies, competition, customer feedback and pricing/product strategies.
• With Site Director ensure that the program provides a dynamic Jewish context for children to learn about themselves, values, their community, and the world.
• Confer with teachers, Social Service staff, parents, and specialists to be alert to the needs for early intervention: responsible for implementation of recommendations of Social Service Team.
• Coordinate with the Site Director supervising and reviewing staff preparation of Parent-Teacher Conferences; participate in conferences when appropriate and call in Social Services when necessary.

Family Engagement

• Be a warm and welcoming presence daily for parents and children at closings and pick up times.
• Actively assists Site Director to recruit new families and sell program. Proactively seek opportunities to attend community gatherings where information can be shared, etc.
• Assist Site Director with Family Involvement Group (FIG) and room parent duties, ensuring that parents are actively involved in the school community. Build retention of families through creating community and connections for Heller families.
• Work with Site Director to plan and implement parent orientation and open houses to best represent Heller to families.

Staff Management & Engagement

• Assist Site Director in developing staffing plans for all programs throughout the year (approx. 7 classrooms). Support sub coordinator with arranging and providing for all substitute coverage daily.
• Responsible for interviewing, hiring, and training of new staff. This includes orientation, making sure all paperwork is collected and regular check-ins with new staff during their first 3 months.
• Accurately check and submit payroll biweekly and keep track of staff vacation and sick time.
• Create annual goals, staff development and training plans and evaluation processes (both formal and informal for specific classrooms under the guidance of Site Director).
• With Director, work to build collaborative where everyone shares similar values, goals, and objectives. When necessary, act as a mediator for staff teams; successfully transmit tools and strategies that will allow for strong team development and self-resolution of issues.
• With Site Director, plan and conduct regularly scheduled staff meetings that provide staff development opportunities to best meet needs of staff. Create a collegial environment and build a warm community among all staff.
• Work with Site Director to plan and implement staff orientation and training for staff in-service week in August and staff in-service day in February.

Business Operations & JCC Partnerships

• Proactively develop and maintain collaborative relations with agency management staff to create seamless program continuity, address challenges and develop effective implementation plans for increasing JCC's impact those we serve. This includes Community Engagement and Apachi Chicago Day Camp staff.
• Work with Site Director to oversee the site's risk management and security plan and train staff.
• Maintain the overall function of the communication program, Remini, for the center. Work with the curriculum specialist to train teachers as needed.
• Assist Site Director in budget oversight and compliance.
• Provide oversight of accurate maintenance of children and staff records.
• Responsible for placing weekly orders of food and supplies for the center, including snacks, milk, fruit, etc.
• Other duties as assigned.

Essential Job Duties (Physical duties):

• Lift/move children up to 40 lbs.
• Demonstrate physical stamina and agility required to be mobile for long periods throughout the day.
• Ability to operate equipment such as phone, computer keyboard, calculator, and standard office equipment.
• Repetitive movement of arms and hands to operate computer, keyboard, and mouse.
• Vision: must be able to distinguish between colors, shades, and brightness with ability to focus.
• Move from sitting (chair and floor) to standing position easily and quickly.
• Stand for long periods of time and be able to run and actively engage physically with children.
• React with physical and mental alertness in emergency situations.
• Use hands for grasping classroom equipment and play material.
• Supervise children by sight and sound.
• Diaper children in accordance with DCFS requirements.

Days/Hours/Travel:
Monday through Friday hours 10:00am-6:00pm. Occasional weekend and evening hours per program needs

Education:

• Bachelor's degree in early childhood, Elementary Education, or related field.
• Minimum of 23 hours in Early Childhood college course work.
• Master's degree in early childhood education highly preferred.

Experience

• At least 2 years supervisory experience in an Early Childhood environment.
• Experience working within DCFS and Municipal Health Dept. guidelines preferred.
• Demonstrated experience with emergent curriculum and outdoor classrooms.
• Experience within a Reggio Emilia inspired school, highly preferred.

Other Requirements:

• Ability to demonstrate and lead with JCC Chicago's Four Core Values: Self-Leadership and Accountability, Creativity and Innovation, Teamwork and Collaboration, and Customer Service.
• Outstanding customer service skills with a demonstrated passion for children and families.
• Highly organized and detail-oriented with proven ability for follow up & follow through.
• Demonstrate the ability to learn to develop and maintain budgets.
• Be flexible and adaptable and able to work collaboratively with EC and agency-wide staff, parents, and community members.
• Must demonstrate strong administrative skills, attention to detail, task prioritization, and ability to multitask.
• Demonstrated intermediate level proficiency in MS Word, Excel with the ability to learn other technology as needed.
• Demonstrated knowledge of Jewish culture and values with previous Jewish programming experience.

$65000

Our GPS is set to J.

We are a collaborative, dynamic, forward-looking team whose passion has a purpose.

With Jewish values as our compass, we are moving JCC Chicago in new exciting directions that will strengthen our Jewish community, enrich generations, nurture friendships, respect traditions and bring out the best in very life we touch.

Led by our dynamic and forward-thinking Executive Team, JCC Chicago enriches lives and builds community through vibrant, meaningful experiences. We are a collaborative, dynamic, forward-looking team whose passion has a purpose. With Jewish values as our compass, we are moving JCC Chicago in new exciting directions that will strengthen our Jewish community, enrich generations, nurture friendships, respect traditions and bring out the best in every life we touch.

JCC Chicago is the largest JCC system in North America, with more than 500 staff in over 13 diverse locations across the metropolitan area. Our core program offerings include Early Childhood Education, Children and Family Engagement Programs, J at School, Sports & Recreation, Aquatics, Arts & Ideas, Day Camps and Overnight Camp.